Window operating mechanism



1931- I H. E. CAMPBELL 1,835,558

WINDOW OPERATING MECHANISM Fiied March 24, 1928 s Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR ATTORNEY C- 1931- H. ECAMPBELL 1,835,558

WINDOW OPERATING MECHA NI SM Filed March 24, 1928 s Sheets-Sheet 2 V v Q f BY MM ATTORNEY E: ,f o

Dec. 8, 1931. H. E. CAMPBELL 1,835,558

WINDOW OPERATING MECHANISM Filed March 24, 1928 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 a: I k 4 INVENTOR 64 L rmpAe// Clam W ATTORNEY.

Patented Dec. 8, 1931 UNITED STATE-S PATENT OFFICE HARRY E. CAMPBELL, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, ASSIG-NOR TO CAMPBELL METAL WINDOW CORPORATION, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, A CORPORATION OF MARY- LAND WINDOW OPERATING MECHANISM Application filed March 24, 1928. Serial No. 264,511.

The present invention relates to a mechanism whereby the sashes in an ordinary double-hung window may be readily raised or lowered or kept in any desired position without the use of counter-weights or other counterbalancing mechanism.

Before going into a detailed description of the apparatus shown in the drawings, I will describe the general principles of operation. Across the top of the window is provided a shaft for each sash which carries drums to which the sash cords are wound. The lifting mechanism consists of a pull cord (which term is intended throughout to include a chain, rope, cable or other flexible equivalent) having a weighted handle which is wound on a freely rotating driving wheel. Another cord carrying a small counterweight is wound on the same wheel in the opposite direction. The counterweight about equalizes the weighted handle of the cord so that the wheel will stay in any position where it is placed, but if the handle is raised the coun terweight will cause the driving wheel to revolve winding up the handle cord. This driving wheel is operatively connected by ratchet mechanism to a gear (which term is intended to include a sprocket wheel) which in turn is connected with a corresponding gear on one of the transverse shafts referred to. The main shaft is also connected by a ratchet mechanism with a member normally held stationary. These ratchets are so arranged that when the driving wheel is rotated in one direction, the gear and transverse shaft will be rotated, but when the handle is lifted and the driving wheel turned to rewind the handle cord, the gear and transverse shaft will be held stationary. It is thus possible to have any desired ratio between the two gears, for this will simply mean that the higher this ratio is, the easier it will be to raise the sash but the greater the number of pulls that must be given to the handle.

In order to lower the sash readily, I have found it advantageous to mount the ratchet mechanism which holds the shaft stationary during the timethat the driving wheel is being re-wound, on a member which is held in place by a friction engagement. This means that when such friction engagement is released, the transverse shaft will not be held against rotation and the sash can drop, provided the ratchet mechanism which connects the gears and the driving wheel is out of engagement. This ratchet is thrown out of en gagement by a reverse movement of the driving wheel which also releases the friction engagement. In order to prevent the sash from dropping too rapidly, a governor is used.

An illustrative example of a device embodying these principles is shown in the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a vertical section through the operating mechanism; Fig. 2 is a plan view with parts broken away; Fig. 3 is a detailed section taken on line 33 of Fig. 1; Fig. i is a section on line 44 of Fig. 1; Fig. 5 shows certain of the parts shown in Fig. 4 but in a different position; Fig. 6 is an isometric detail of the pawl and cam arrangement; Fig. 7 is a front view of the device, and Fig. 8 shows the device applied to a double-hung sash.

For the purpose of convenience, I will describe the mechanism as applied to only one sash, though as shown in Fig. 8, ordinarily two of the devices will be used, one connected with each of the transverse shafts which are supplied for the two" sashes.

The transverse shaft is designated by the numeral 10 and carries drums 12 on which are wrapped the sash supporting members 14 which are here shown as metal tape. Shaft 10 rotates in bearings such as the hearing 16 carried by plate 18. A second plate 20 is connected with plate 18 at the top by a bar 22 and at the bottom by a bar 24 having horizontal legs 26 which gives this bottom member a U-shape.

Shaft 10 carries a gear 28 which meshes with a small gear 30 which is fixed on hub 32 of a wheel 34. The wheel 34L is fixed on shaft 36 which rotates on conical bearings 38. The main driving wheel is designated by the numeral 40 and, in order to save space, is here shown as mounted to rotate about the periphery of wheel 34. The wheel 34 carries ratchet teeth 42 that give a relatively broad bearing surface for wheel 40, and the wheel 40 is kept in place on the periphery of wheel 34 by the screws 44. The wheel 34 also carries ratchet teeth 46 (see Fig. 4) with which meshes a pawl 48 carried by wheel 40. The wheel 40 has two grooves 50 and 52, in one of which winds the handle cord 54 and in the other of which winds the counterweight cord 56. As shown in Fig. 4, the cord 54 hangs on the front face of the sash here indicated at 57. While I have shown these as ropes, it is to be understood that any flexible medium such as a cable or chain may be used. The handle cord 54 is so wound on the driving wheel 40 that when the handle 58 is pulled down, the pawl 48 will engage with ratchet teeth 46, causing gear 30 to rotate, thus rotating transverse shaft 10 to wind up the sash supporting members 14. lVhen handle 58 is raised, the counterweight 60 will cause the driving wheel 40 to rotate in a reverse direction winding up the handle cord 54.

In order to hold the gear 30 stationary during this return movement of driving wheel 40, I supply a set of pawls 62 adapted to engage the teeth 42 of wheel 34. The pawls 62 are mounted on a member 64 which is interlocked with a sleeve 66 against relative rotation of the two parts. The sleeve 66 carries a disk 68 provided with a fibre face 70 adapted to make frictional engagement with the side plate 20, and during the lifting operation these two are held in engagement so that member 64 is held stationary. Sleeve 66 has four projecting portions 72 (formed by cutting notches in the end of the sleeve) which interlock with portions of member 64 as shown in Fig. 3, and hold the two members against relative rotation but permit endwise movement of sleeve 66 relative to member 64. A ring 74 surrounds the interlocking parts and is adapted to engage with a shoulder 76 on sleeve 66.

Member 64 carries weighted governor members 78 pivoted at 7 9 and provided with lugs 81 adapted to contact with ring 74 so that when member 64 rotates, the governor members 78 will exert pressure to hold the fibre face 70 against side plate 20 and thus control the speed of rotation.

For the window sash to drop, pawl 48 must be disengaged from teeth 46. The manner in which this is accomplished is illustrated in Figs. 4, 5 and 6. It is to be noted that the cord 56, which supports the counterweight 60, is connected to an arm which in turn is attached to pin 82 which carries a cam 84. As shown in Fig. 5, when cord 56 is wound on wheel 40, the cam member 84 will lie with its axis following the circumfcrence of wheel 40. However, as weight 60 drops to its lowermost position, the cam 84 will be turned sideways, finally reaching the position shown in Fig. 4 and during its movement and even before it reaches the lowermost position, will cause pawl 48 to be disengaged from teeth 46. If, therefore, handle 58. is lifted far enough to permit weight 60 to drop to its lowermost position, pawl 48 will be disengaged and the window can be lowered as soon as the holding pressure between fibre disk 70 and plate 20 is released.

In the example here illustrated, fibre disk 70 is normally held pressed against plate 20 by a disk 86 mounted on a shaft 88 which makes screw engagement with a bracket 90 carried by member 24. In the arrangement shown in the drawings, the screw connection has a left hand thread. Shaft 88 is bent forward to form a lever and is provided with a pair of arms 92 which are in line with wheel 40, so that cord 54 may pass between them. The arms 92 should be sufficiently heavy, normally to drop to the position shown in dotted lines in Fig. 2 and hold the disk 86 pressing disk 70 against plate 20 due to the action of the threaded connection referred to. Cord 54 carries a button 94 so positioned that when weight 58 is lifted to permit weight 60 to drop to its lowermost position, the button 94 will lift the arms 92 as shown in Fig. 2 thus releasing the pressure which holds disk 70 to plate 20. Inasmuch as this same move ment of weight 60 has released pawl 48, the window will start to drop and its speed of movement will be controlled by the governor already described. This movement will be relatively slow even before the governor starts to operate, due to the inertia of sleeve 66 resisting horizontal movement which will tend to maintain friction between disk 70 and plate 20.

It is to be understood that the example given is by way of illustration only, and that the principles of construction described and the combinations set forth in the claims may be utilized in many widely diflerent forms without departing from the spirit of my invention.

What I claim is:

1. In a window operating mechanism adapted for use with vertically sliding sashes having flexible connections for supporting the sashes, a drum about which such a flexible connection may be wound to raise a sash, geared mechanism for rotating said drum, a ratchet mechanism for preventing said drum from rotating to permit such flexible connection to unwind, a ratchet drive for rotating said drum to wind up such flexible connection, and means for releasing said drum to permit the flexible connection to unwind without disengaging said first ratchet mechanism.

2. In a window operating mechanism adapted for use with vertically sliding sashes having flexible connections for supporting the sashes, a drum about which such a flexible connection may be wound to raise a sash, a rotatable member operatively connected with said drum whereby the same may be rotated to wind up such flexible connection, means, in addition to said rotatable member, for holding said drum from unwinding, means operated by a reverse movement of said rotatable member for disconnecting such member from the drum and means for releasing such additional holding means.

3. A structure as specified in the immediately preceding claim in which the means for releasing said additional holding means is also operated by a reverse movement of said rotatable member.

4. In a window operating mechanism adapted for use with vertically sliding sashes having flexible connections for supporting the sashes, a drum about which such a flexible connection may be woundizo raise a sash, a main driving wheel operatively conneced with said drum by a ratchet mechanism whereby the drum may be rotated to wind up such flexible connection, a second ratchet mechanism operative to prevent said drum from unwinding, a flexible pull cord wound on said driving wheel in such a way as to rotate said drum as the pull cord is unwound and means for rotating said driving wheel to rewind said pull cord.

5. In a window operating mechanism adapted for use with vertically sliding sashes having flexible connections for supporting the sashes, a drum about which such a flexible connection may be wound to raise a sash, a main driving wheel operatively connected with said drum by a ratchet mechanism adapted to hold the drum and driving wheel in operative relation whereby the drum may be rotated to wind up such flexible connection, a second ratchet mechanism operative to prevent said drum from unwinding, a flexible pull cord wound on said driving wheel in such a way as to rotate said drum as the pull cord is unwound and a second cord carrying a counterweight wound on said driving wheel in the opposite direction to said pull cord adapted to rewind said pull cord.

6. A structure as specified in the immediately preceding claim in which the cord carrying the counterweight is adapted to disengage the ratchet connection between the driving wheel and drum when such cord is unwound.

7. In a window operating mechanism adapted for use with vertically sliding sashes having flexible connections for supporting the sashes, a drum about which such a flexible connection may be wound to raise a sash, means for rotating said drum to wind up such flexible member, a friction clutch, a ratchet connection between said drum and said friction clutch adapted to prevent said drum from unwinding and means for releasing said clutchito permit the drum to unwind. 7

8. A structure as specified in the immediately preceding claim which further includes an automatic governor associated with said friction clutch adapted to control the speed with which said drum may unwind.

HARRY E. CAMPBELL. 

